The technical field is related to a method and an apparatus for facilitating manufacturing of a semiconductor device.
In manufacturing of semiconductor devices, for optimizing lithography processes, etching processes, semiconductor device component density distribution, and/or semiconductor device performance uniformity, dummy patterns may be provided in one or more layers of the semiconductor devices. A dummy pattern may include a dummy element that is formed of the same material as a functional element (e.g., an electrically connected element) but is not configured to perform the function associated with the functional element.
A semiconductor device manufacturing entity may be responsible for implementing dummy patterns based on device layout designs provided by customers of the manufacturing entity. A customer may provide a custom layout file that includes a layout design to the manufacturing entity. The custom layout file may not be sufficiently compatible with a dummy-pattern-data generation tool of the manufacturing entity. The manufacturing entity may modify a set of code in the dummy-pattern-data generation tool to accommodate the custom layout file and/or the layout design. The modified code may require re-qualification for preventing errors. The code modification and the code re-qualification may be substantially time-consuming.